First Day of School Photos

Tomorrow, three Bryker Woods students!

I wrote an email to a friend recently, and I did such a good job of describing the kids' teachers I thought I'd just copy that and post it here. (Friend: hope you don't mind!) Anyway, here is what we have in store for tomorrow. The biggest change is that I'm no longer the mother of a pre-schooler. Now they all attend Bryker Woods. I guess this means I'm not the same kind of a stay at home mom, and very shortly I'll be a part time working mom again. One door closes and another opens....... here's the copied info:


Yes, Emma, my oldest, has a new teacher. But even that teacher is known to us, since her daughter is one of my Girl Scouts and a member of Emma's grade at school. So we know her as a fellow "Mom" at the moment. I've heard wonderful things about her as a teacher. I had a friend who was a clerk in the office and she said Mrs. Spain was the only teacher who never sent kids to the office, she takes care of all the discipline in her room. Impressive....

Max, 3rd grader, will have a lady we've had with Emma two years ago. She is about a year or two from retirement and a very impressive teacher. She gives them each hugs at the end of the day as they leave the room. She asks them about their day, and what they'll be working on that night for homework. It takes almost 20 minutes to get the whole class outside after the bell rings. Her students are "her babies" for the year, and she loves them. Great teacher.

Joey's Kindergarten teacher is a family friend. When Emma was in her class 4 years ago, I volunteered to be a reader on Fridays. Joey was a one year old then, and she would take him to the teacher's lounge for the half hour. When I got him back, he would have cookie crumbs and strawberry juice on his shirt, and lipstick kisses around his cheeks. She even offered to babysit Joey when the other four of us went to movies and she and Joey were special friends... she was like an aunt to him. Now she is teaching him. She will have to train him not to dig through her desk drawers for candy. I asked if she would prefer not to have him be a student, but she is very excited to teach him. She is only a year or two from retirement as well.

We live about three blocks down the street from the school. My husband attended it as a kid. So that is another good thing, we can all walk to school, and actually, I may let the kids walk home by themselves later in the year.

Kathy's Last Temptation

OK, so who's got Kathy's number?
Randall's, that's who!

Not only do I shop there once a day, sometimes more.
Not only do they take more and more of my money each month.
Now they have developed the one impulse purchase that I simply couldn't resist.

I just went ahead and grabbed them and kept on walking.
The oddly hued, over-bright flowers. No way they are really this color, but they were like catnip to me.

Had to have them,
and had just the perfect vase for them.
Now washing the dishes isn't too bad.

Museum Tragedy...

I was missing the cavemen at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History so much that I wrote an email when we got home. I asked the Curator what happened to my all time favorite representation of prehistoric surgery.

This was the disturbing response:

Dear Kathy,

When we dismantled the History of Medicine exhibit, we gave it to the UNT Health Science Center. They were storing it and planned to install it in a new building. Unfortunately, the Tindell Warehouse burned down and the exhibit was lost. I have attached a photo of the cavemen and they are indeed dusty.

Best wishes,
Jim Diffily

Cowtown Vacation

What do you do when you have a couple weeks of Summer Vacation left, the need for a change of scenery, but little cash or energy for a glamorous trip?

Head to Fort Worth!


Stay out of the street when the steer pass by, they might sweat on you.


The kids are old enough now that we decided to do some of the "touristy" stuff on this trip to Gramma and Grandad's. So the first day, we went down to the Stockyards to see the cattle drive. The staff wanders up and down the street before the longhorns, giving us all warnings about standing away from the street. Good thing, because those steer looked mighty feisty in the mid morning heatwave. Actually, it was kind of fun, and we went to the gunslinger show and the Cowboy museum afterwards.

Our wonderful hosts

Where is Santa spending August? At the Gunslinger show!

David warned me to keep my hand off this guy's piece

From there, we made was our second visit to the outstanding new museum in Fort Worth, The Modern.



They had a neat show going on that gave all of us lots to talk about. The permanent exhibit had the ladder to the sky that we all loved.



We stayed in Cowtown for four days, and had time for a visit to the Museum of Science and History. David and the kids took in the Star Wars exhibit, and I spent time in the "Attic" exhibit. They are going to pack up the collection during construction of the new, bigger and better museum. So the attic exhibit pulled out old, retired items that I was familiar with from my yearly field trips as a student in the FWISD.

Mighty dinosaur, where are the Cavemen performing brain surgery? Did you eat them?



The kids loved the Water Gardens, but it did get quite warm..... like Hades.

And we had lots of cousin time with Alex and Grace, and my cousin Amy and her baby Anna and my aunt Shorty. I got to see Missy's pretty new house. And we got to shoot bb and pellet guns, make things in the woodshop, watch very good movies, play dominoes, and hang out and relax.


Thanks Mom and Dad!

beautiful poem

I went to a beautiful memorial service yesterday. On the back of the pew sheet, there was a poem printed that I love. I had seen it in the past, and was actually trying to find it again just a few weeks ago without success.

It is by Henry Van Dyke

Gone From My Sight

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone"

Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.
And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"

And that is dying...

woo hoo

Found this great new site called simpsonizeme.com, and you can see how David and I turned out.